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Biohazard

The Novichok Anniversary: BBC Change Official Skripal Story Yet Again

Tom Secker
Medium
Sun, 03 Mar 2019 20:32 UTC
salisbury hazmat
We're coming up on the first anniversary of the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, and the official story has been revised once again. According to the most recent BBC reports, fundamental details that we were told about the circumstances around the poisoning must have been wrong, because the new reports completely contradict the original ones.

Today the BBC published an article saying that the police first made the connection between Russia and the two people found unconscious in the centre of Salisbury via a google search. The state broadcaster treated this like it is news, when in reality the BBC reported the same thing months ago on their episode of Panorama dedicated to the poisonings.


Curiously, it was not Bailey who told the BBC about the google search revealing that Sergei Skripal was a double agent. Instead it was Sgt Tracey Holloway, who is identified in the report as one of the first on the scene.

The problem is that the mainstream media - based on police statements and briefings - unanimously reported that Bailey was the first on the scene and that this is how he was exposed to Novichok. In the week following the poisoning the news was full of stories about how he had courageously rushed to help the Skripals, without regard for his own safety.

Comment: See also:

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Bad Guys

Netanyahu meets with Putin, agrees that withdrawal of foreign forces from Syria is common goal


Sputnik
Sun, 03 Mar 2019 20:11 UTC
netanyahu putin
© Sputnik / Aleksey Nikolskyi
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin that Iran and its allies were the biggest threat to Middle Eastern security, Russian television showed Sunday.

During the meeting, which took place on Wednesday in Moscow, Netanyahu reiterated his country's readiness to continue countering Iran and praised the role of Russian-Israeli cooperation in ensuring regional stability.

"Iran and its allies are the biggest threat to regional stability and security", Netanyahu said, as aired in the "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" programme on the broadcaster Rossiya 1.

Netanyahu has long been pursuing anti-Iranian policies. Over recent years, it has been advocating the review of the Iranian nuclear deal with an aim at resuming global pressure on Iran. Israel has also been opposing what it calls Iran's military presence in Syria, though Iran itself has stressed that it only sends advisers at the request of the Syrian government.

According to the prime minister, he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed that the withdrawal of foreign forces from Syria was a common goal for Israel and Russia.

"President Putin and I agreed on a joint goal - the withdrawal of foreign forces that were deployed to Syria after the start of the civil war. We agreed to create a joint group to achieve this goal with the participation of other parties," Netanyahu said at a government meeting, as quoted by his office.

Comment: Not that Netanyahu can be trusted, but it would be amusing if Israel were to be the one to get the U.S. finally and definitively out of Syria - having got them into it in the first place.

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Passport

EU to introduce migrant/refugee 'humanitarian visas' to end trafficking and allow better vetting

Stan M
Voice of Europe
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 20:02 UTC
visa passport
The European Commission will present a new bill in favor of a 'Humanitarian Visa' allowing migrants to legally enter the EU to apply for asylum, erasing more lines between migrants and refugees.

Approximately 90 per cent of all so called 'refugees' arrive in the EU illegally according to the European Parliament. With this proposal EU states claim to want to put an end to trafficking.

The 'Humanitarian Visa' will according to representatives include a background check for security reasons and to make sure only actually persecuted persons benefit with the help of national and international databanks.

Applicants will be able to apply for asylum electronically or through written forms at the embassy and consulates of EU member states.

Meanwhile no changes were made public to stop further illegal entries or how to decrease the already existing asylum application flood.

Germany is experiencing a 62 per cent increase of asylum applications since January. Out of 17.051 applications mainly from Syria, Iraq and Nigeria around every third person was recognized as a refugee.

Comment: Lauren Southern spent months on the ground, talking to refugees and migrants on all stages of their journey, including interactions with the human traffickers and NGOs facilitating their movement into Europe. A previously harsh critic of the refugee/migrant problem, she is still a critic, but her experiences softened her approach to the point where she came to the conclusion that the crisis is good for no one, not Europeans OR the migrants/refugees. They were sold a lie and now countless numbers of them are essentially stateless, jobless, and in permanent limbo. See the talk she gave to the EU on what she learned:



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Fire

Britain's witchfinders ready to burn Jeremy Corbyn

Jonathan Cook
The Unz Review
Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
JeremyCorbin
© shutterstock
Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn
"McCarthyism" is a word thrown around a lot nowadays, and in the process its true meaning - and horror - has been increasingly obscured.

McCarthyism is not just the hounding of someone because their views are unpopular. It is the creation by the powerful of a perfect, self-rationalising system of incrimination - denying the victim a voice, even in their own defence. It presents the accused as an enemy so dangerous, their ideas so corrupting, that they must be silenced from the outset. Their only chance of rehabilitation is prostration before their accusers and utter repentance.

McCarthyism, in other words, is the modern political parallel of the witch hunt.

In an earlier era, the guilt of women accused of witchcraft was tested through the ducking stool. If a woman drowned, she was innocent; if she survived, she was guilty and burnt at the stake. A foolproof system that created an endless supply of the wicked, justifying the status and salaries of the men charged with hunting down ever more of these diabolical women.

And that is the Medieval equivalent of where the British Labour party has arrived, with the suspension of MP Chris Williamson for anti-semitism.

Comment: See also:

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Bullseye

Trump might have just won the 2020 election

Nick Gillespie
Reason
Sat, 02 Mar 2019 03:25 UTC
TrumpatCPAC
© Twitter
The U.S. president had some genuine insights about America’s international problems.
The president's speech at CPAC was a bedazzling mix of bravado, B.S., humor, and positive vision no Democrat will be able to top.

It's way too early to be thinking this, much less saying it, but what the hell: If Donald Trump is able to deliver the sort of performance he gave today at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the annual meeting of right-wingers held near Washington, D.C., his reelection is a foregone conclusion.

There is simply no potential candidate in the Democratic Party who wouldn't be absolutely blown off the stage by him. I say this as someone who is neither a Trump fanboy nor a Never Trumper. But he was not simply good, he was Prince-at-the-Super-Bowl great, deftly flinging juvenile taunts at everyone who has ever crossed him, tossing red meat to the Republican faithful, and going sotto voce serious to talk about justice being done for working-class Americans screwed over by global corporations.

In a heavily improvised speech that lasted over two hours, the 72-year-old former (future?) reality TV star hit every greatest hit in his repertoire ("Crooked Hillary," "build the wall," "America is winning again," and more all made appearances) while riffing on everything from the Green New Deal to his own advanced age and weird hair to the wisdom of soldiers over generals. At times, it was like listening to Robin Williams' genie in the Disney movie Aladdin, Howard Stern in his peak years as a radio shock jock, or Don Rickles as an insult comic. When he started making asides, Trump observed, "This is how I got elected, by going off script." Two years into his presidency and he's just getting warmed up.
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Caesar

How Modi changed the India-Pakistan paradigm, and forced its neighbor to confront terrorism

Dr. Sreeram Chaulia
RT
Sat, 02 Mar 2019 13:16 UTC
NarendraModi
© Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji
India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi
The sharp escalation of tensions and clashes between India and Pakistan in recent weeks symbolizes a new phase in an old confrontation that dates back to the bitter partition of the two countries in 1947 on religious lines.

The two South Asian rivals have fought three wars and one quasi-war over the last seven decades, besides engaging in periodic shorter clashes over their disputed border and sparring in international diplomatic arenas.

While it is hard to find any extended spell of normalcy in bilateral relations, the conflict had settled into a low-intensity pattern for years. Short of full-scale wars since 1971, the focus was on how India could respond to Pakistan's doctrine of 'bleeding India through a thousand cuts' through lethal Islamist terrorists that were trained, financed and let loose by the military dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s.

The unconventional threat posed by Pakistan-harboured jihadist terrorist outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad, which boasted thousands of holy warriors in their ranks ready to strike India and force it to concede Kashmir's accession to Pakistan, posed a conundrum to New Delhi. These terrorist proxies would infiltrate fighters into India through the mountainous Himalayan border or radicalize Indian Muslims to carry out deadly attacks on Indian civilians and Indian military personnel.

Comment: Why 'counter-intuitively'? Maybe that's Modi's strategy.

See also:

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Arrow Down

Cohen's flip was a flop

Peter Van Buren
The American Conservative
Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
MCohen
© C-Span/YouTube Screenshot
Michael Cohen testifying Feb. 27, 2019, to Congress
He said what he thought we wanted to hear--that Trump's a liar and a cheat. But what about collusion?

With the president of the United States practicing nuclear diplomacy 8,000 miles away in Vietnam, Americans at home got to watch former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen stand up on his hind legs and beg for a reduced jail sentence.

Cohen, testifying on Wednesday before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, told Americans who think they already know exactly what they wanted to hear: Trump is a vulgar con man, a racist, and a cheat. Also, water is wet.

The media is burying the lede: Michael Cohen did not provide any evidence of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign, nor of collusion, active coordination, or conspiracy with Wikileaks. Cohen's accusation of a Trump crime while in office is at best an evidence-free rendering of an unclear violation of a campaign finance law usually settled with a fine.

Any action going forward would be a big ask. It would mean building a criminal case, or even impeachment, around the uncorroborated testimony of a disbarred, convicted felon who violated attorney-client privilege to plead for a shorter sentence. Absent corroborating evidence, it is hard to see Cohen's testimony leading to much of anything. It all sounded very dramatic and will be played as such by the media, but when read closely, it's just another faux smoking gun. There's no meat on these bones.

Comment: Tucker Carlson on Michael Cohen's testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform:



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Handcuffs

Ukraine behind the arrest of a Russian energy expert in Greece


Sputnik
Sun, 03 Mar 2019 20:06 UTC
handcuffed
© Global Look Press/West Coast Surfer
Russian expert in energy Evgeny Kalinin was arrested in Greece at the request of Ukraine, attorney Yannis Rahiotis told Sputnik on Saturday.

"Late Thursday, Russian energy expert Evgeny Kalinin was arrested at the Athens airport. The arrest was made at the request of Ukraine. Kalinin was in Greece on a business trip. He is a well-known oil expert," Rahiotis said.

Rahiotis noted that a hearing on Kalinin's case took place on Friday and he was then sent to jail until Ukraine's extradition request would be transferred to Greece.

The lawyer said that Ukraine accused Kalinin of violation of the tax legislation during his work in the country.

At the same time, Rahiotis said he was sure that it was a political case, as Kalinin was on the list of Ukraine's Mirotvorets website, which was known for publishing private information of people who allegedly posed a threat to Ukraine's sovereignty, for his support of former President Viktor Yanukovych.
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Info

Lavrov to Pompeo: We can talk Venezuela, but US must stop threatening its legitimate govt


RT
Sat, 02 Mar 2019 19:57 UTC
maduro
© Reuters / Miraflores Palace
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro holds a copy of the Venezuelan constitution.
The US attempts to threaten Venezuela and meddle in the country's affairs under the guise of supplying humanitarian aid have nothing to do with democracy, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov told his American counterpart, Mike Pompeo.

The top diplomats talked on the phone on Saturday on the initiative of Washington, the Russia Foreign Ministry said.

During the conversation, Lavrov blasted the American threats against the government of Nicolas Maduro, calling them "blatant interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state and a flagrant violation of international law."

He also grilled the US Secretary of State over Washington's attempts to influence the situation in Venezuela under the "hypocritical guise" of providing humanitarian aid to the crisis-hit country. Such actions "have nothing to do with democratic process," Lavrov said.
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Arrow Up

US & South Korea agree to scrap major military drills to foster denuclearization


RT
Sun, 03 Mar 2019 01:31 UTC
South Korean marines
© REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
South Korean marines march during a military exercise as a part of the annual joint military training called Foal Eagle between South Korea and the U.S. in Pohang, South Korea, April 5, 2018.
Washington and Seoul will no longer conduct the large-scale Foal Eagle and Key Resolve war games, the South Korean Defense Ministry said on Sunday. It comes several days after US President Trump complained about the drills' cost.

The cancelation of the annual war games, originally scheduled to kick off in spring, was announced by the South Korean military, as it made public the details of a call between acting US defense chief Patrick Shanahan and his South Korean counterpart, Jeong Kyeong-doo, Yonhap reported.

Seoul said that the move to call off the exercises was in support of the diplomatic efforts to pursue a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. The drills have been paired since 2001 and traditionally take place in February and March. North Korea saw the allies' annual saber-rattling as preparation for invasion.

Comment: A small but positive, and common sense, step towards improving relations with North Korea, particularly after the recent summit between Kim and Trump appeared to yield very little:

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